The present invention relates generally to the field of mobile communication devices and deals more particularly with a package and housing design that combines the mechanical design considerations for the RF, acoustic and image capture functionalities to reduce the overall physical size of the device and at the same time enhance the RF, accoustic and optics performance.
The growth in the use of portable electronic devices such as, for example mobile communication devices, cellular telephones and the like, has driven the design of such devices to become smaller and more convenient and include further features and functionalities. These newer feature and functionality laden mobile communication devices have led to a new product category in the mobile phone industry as multi-media phones. Multi-media phones are highly desirable and are characterized by some type of camera or image capturing feature and a wide range or diversity of audio features and functionality, such as, music playback, which may or may not be combined with some type of video or graphics.
Consumers have become accustomed to the convenience and portability of cellular telephones and have demanded that those cellular telephones become even more convenient and even more portable. The constant thrust in cellular telephone design is to make them as small as possible and the same demands are placed on multi-media mobile phones.
Conventional multi-media mobile communication devices such as for example, of the type shown by the prior art in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 and generally designated 100 typically include an internal antenna 102, a speaker or audio transducer component 104 to provide audio functionality and a camera system or other similar imaging sensor 106 to provide image capture functionality. The multi-media mobile communication device may be, for example, a cellular telephone and include a display such as an LCD or other visual display panel generally designated 110 and include keys 112, 112 which are used for dialing the desired telephone number or for activating and utilizing features of the multi-media cellular telephone 100. The internal antenna 102 includes an RF-emitter that is generally held or located in a spaced separation with respect to a ground plate mounted in a chassis or sub-assembly within the housing of the device 100. The RF-emitter electrically connects to the operational electronic circuitry of the mobile communication device. The spaced separation between the RF-emitter and the ground plate area defines the mechanical outline of an antenna chamber volume generally designated 120, that is, the area or space beneath or under the antenna profile outline is clear of interference.
The audio functionality for the multi-media phone is typically provided by an audio transducer 104, such as, a loud speaker, earpiece and microphone which are located separate and away from the antenna RF-emitter to prevent interference with the emitter. Typically, the transducer or speaker 104 is mounted in an enclosure of some sort defining a chamber generally designated 130. The chamber 130 functions as an acoustic resonator and the physical size or volume of the chamber 130 influences the audio quality, and a larger volume generally results in better audio quality.
The image capture functionality of the multi-media phone is typically provided or carried out by a camera system or other similar sensor 106, such as an optics package or module that is also located separate and apart from the antenna functionality and audio functionality to prevent interference. The image capture functionality is also enclosed within the housing of the multi-media phone in an area or enclosure of a desired configuration defining a chamber generally designated 140 to accommodate the camera system. The camera system may include but is not limited to the camera lens, focus and image capturing components including any of the optic and electronic components necessary to carry out the intended function. As illustrated in the schematic functional block diagram shown in side elevational view in FIG. 2, the internal antenna 102, speaker component 104 and image capture unit 106 are maintained in a spaced relationship with respect to one another and typically consuming a large amount of space and volume within the housing thus adding to the overall size of the multi-media mobile communication device. The camera system or image capture functionality specifically, the size of the camera optics package or module 106 has been forced to be reduced in size and volume to accommodate the demand for smaller and more convenient mobile phones. To obtain the size reduction, lenses have been made smaller and accordingly the focal length of the camera system made shorter. As a consequence, the captured image quality (aberrations, brightness and other image quality characteristics) worsens and is less than desirable due to fundamental optics laws, manufacturing problems and tolerances and lens purity. In order to improve the captured image quality, the size of the camera optics package or module 106 must be made larger or high precision optics made of glass must be used. Accordingly, the internal antenna 102, audio transducer 104 and camera optics 106 impose separate mechanical design requirements and operational considerations that must be taken into account to insure the proper operation of each functionality to obtain the desired results. These functionality design and operational considerations add to the overall physical size of the multi-media mobile communication device 100, and each requires a relatively large air volume cavity within the mobile communication device to provide the desired and acceptable performance level.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/099,476 titled, “Mobile Communication Device and Related Construction Method” and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention discloses a possible structure and method for sharing at least a portion of the volume required to provide the RF functionality and the acoustic functionality to further reduce the size of the mobile communication device while maintaining acceptable performance levels. In the referenced application, which is incorporated herein by reference, a common shared chamber provides sufficient air volume for the RF antenna functionality and required back cavity air volume for the audio transducer. However, the image capture functionality remains physically separate in its own space or area within the housing.
Consequently, there is a need to identify further construction methods and designs that provide the desired overall physical size reduction and yet provide a chamber having a sufficient air volume to accommodate RF antenna, acoustic and image capture functionalities while overcoming the disadvantages of known multi-media mobile communication devices.
Therefore, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a mechanical design that reduces the size of the multi-media mobile communication device.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a design method to combine the RF functionality, accoustic functionality and image capture functionality without increasing the size of the multi-media mobile communication device.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a reduced size multi-media mobile communication device by sharing a common physical volume for the RF antenna, the audio transducer and the camera system that accommodates the mechanical and operational design requirements of the RF antenna, speaker and camera system, respectively.
It is a yet further object of the present invention to provide a reduced size multi-media mobile communication device wherein the RF antenna common shared volume chamber provides the required back cavity air volume for the audio transducer and image capture camera optics.